Windows NT 4.0 made Microsoft an operating system player for file servers and crushed NetWare, but it was Windows 2000 Server and Advanced Server that stormed the walls of the glasshouse and smashed enough windows to actually get inside and start taking over the joint. And now, it is dead.
At least as far as Microsoft is …

Microsoft will kill support for its unloved Windows Vista operating system a few months ahead of its Windows XP SP2 and Windows 2000 planned end-of-the-road-for-updates deadline.
The company said yesterday that a Vista service pack-free OS will no longer get MS support after 13 April this year, leaving the flaky platform …

Has Microsoft’s Windows chief Steven Sinofsky gone too far in stating the brilliance of his team's work on Windows 8?
“Yes,” say some ex-Microsofties, who reckon Sinofsky is taking credit for something that’s not new on Windows 8, due on Thursday.
What’s got them riled is a 10 October Sinofsky blog where he boasted Windows 8 …

Today will be like no other day because it’s the last Patch Tuesday for Windows XP. Yet there's good news if you're still using XP. For starters, you're not alone.
Thirteen years after it was released, Windows XP remains the world’s second most popular PC operating system. It's running on 27.69 per cent of consumer machines, …

The German city of Munich is buying a whole pile of Microsoft Windows this month - but it won't be the newly released Windows Vista. Instead, it will buy 2000 legit "used licenses" of Windows 2000 Professional, claiming it will save them money.
The licenses are bought from Munich based company Usedsoft, which buys up licenses …

Microsoft plans to fix a Windows Help and Support Center vulnerability as part of next week's Patch Tuesday update batch.
The flaw, which has been the target of hacking attacks over recent weeks, was disclosed to Microsoft's displeasure by Google engineer Tavis Ormandy last month, in a move to renew the age old debate about …

Feature
If you want to be reminded that you're getting old, ask a youngster what Windows NT is. Chances are, there'll be blank looks all round. Windows What? Is it, like, a codename for a new version?
You can't blame them. There hasn't actually been a proper "Windows NT" release since the late 1990s, so for almost anyone under 30 it's …

Microsoft released Windows 1.0 on 20 November, 1985, a year later than first promised. Now, nearly 27 years on, Windows 8 is on the shelves. The operating system was chugging away full-steam ahead as Windows XP established itself - then it jumped the tracks at Vista.
Where is Microsoft's OS going now and where did it come from …

Windows XP has enjoyed a second resurgence in popularity, despite its looming end-of-support date.
Net Applications' data for desktop operating systems in January showed Windows XP had increased its market share by a fraction.
It marked the Windows Vista predecessor's second bounce in its slowly declining market share, which …

Like a titanium-wired bra, XenSource has become more supportive.
The software maker this week patted itself on the back for releasing Version 3.2 of XenEnterprise. The software adds support for Windows 2000 guests. So, stragglers can now run the OS alongside the already supported Windows Server 2003 and Windows XP. Users of …

This week is remarkable for two 10-year computing anniversaries: that of the Apple iPod and of Microsoft's Windows XP.
Both should be celebrated for their success and impact on consumers and tech sector.
But while Apple's iPod will be celebrated in the history of its creator and – no doubt – the annals of computing history as a …

Microsoft's Windows 2000 client operating system is doing well for its age, a little too well it seems on corporate desktops, according to the latest figures.
Forty eight percent of PCs are still running Windows 2000 five years after it was launched and just weeks before Microsoft takes its first steps towards end-of-lifeing …

Security experts for Dutch telco KPN have swung the baseball bat at telcos, with research suggesting mobile roaming networks are so insecure you'd hardly need the NSA to break in and start capturing user traffic.
They find the GRX – GPRS Roaming Exchange – network, which links the roaming traffic of 25 carriers worldwide, has …

Microsoft's webOS luvvin' partner HP is among the PC manufacturers getting copies of early Windows 8 code, according to reports.
HP and other Windows PC OEMs are reported to be getting builds of Microsoft's next desktop operating system known as milestone 3 – seriously pre-beta stuff.
They're sucking down the code through …

The European Union said today that it will investigate Microsoft over alleged market dominance arising from the launch of Windows 2000. The EU is examining claims that W2K will give Microsoft an unfair advantage in ecommerce as well as software, in Europe. The software giant has four weeks to respond to enquiries instigated by …

Microsoft is about to issue an emergency security update to plug a vulnerability which could allow an internet worm to be spread via a computer without the user doing anything.
The update is rated as critical for users of Windows 2000, XP and Server 2003 and the less severe rating of "important" for users of Windows Server 2008 …

Intel does not like making disclosures about codenames it has not yet decided to talk about. But at Computex earlier this year, we talked to a very nice chap on the Chicony stand, who was happy to tell us about Bannister, also known as the Intel 440MX chipset, a mobile Celeron platform. Microsoft, like Intel, does not like …

In the bookshop section of a big electronics store in Tokyo, a staffer's eye was caught by a big red headline about Windows 2000 on the cover. Picked up the rag to see what it was all about and inside found many pictures of young ladies in various states of undress. Could this be a winning combination for Bill Gates and …

Microsoft has put back the release to manufacture of Windows 2000 Service Pack 1. Originally due earlier this week, the monstro 83MB patch is now scheduled for release on 24 July and should be available for web download a few days later.
The software giant is keeping mum on the actual causes of the delay, but the word on the …

In the current tight economic climate, manufacturers of PCs and laptops are eagerly looking forward to the arrival of Windows 8 to rescue their sales.
It's worked before: the launch of Windows 7 in 2009 got off to a galloping start, more than doubling equivalent sales of Vista two years earlier. A few corporates even advanced …

History is repeating itself. When Microsoft launched Internet Explorer, it quickly emerged it didn't actually own the name, and the Beast of Redmond was forced to make hasty financial reparations to ensure it could continue using the name. Now, less than a week after announcing that Windows NT 5.0 will be released as Windows …

Microsoft has released 13 bulletins, covering 26 vulnerabilities, as part of a bumper Patch Tuesday.
All supported versions of Windows will need patching, though Vista and Win 7 (three critical updates) are less exposed than XP and Windows 2000 shops (five critical fixes).
Three of the bulletins are particularly severe and …

Updated
Got a peripheral tape solution based on floppy and parallel port tape drives? Thinking of upgrading your operating system to Windows 2000? Be careful. Tecmar has just issued a warning that its Ditto drives will not work with Windows 2000. According to a statement from the firm, the operating system does not provide drivers for …

Cache in the Attic
Before wandering to pastures new, Bill Ray revealed he is definitely of the mind that, if it still works, why chuck it? His old kit isn't sitting in a box in the attic, he uses it all regularly.
Hantarex, HP and Motion Computing
Hantarex hails from Italy but established a UK operation in 1981 and is still going strong. The CTM …

Microsoft plans to release five critical update bulletins next Tuesday, all critical, in the September edition of its regular Patch Tuesday update cycle.
As usual, not much information on the contents of the planned patches is available. All supported versions of Windows (2000, XP, Vista, Server 2003 and Server 2008) will need …

Something for the Weekend, Sir?
"Fans, players and parents unite against England's 'rip-off' £90 World Cup kit" screamed the Mirror this week. "They think it’s all over... priced."
Even after several thousand years of civilisation and organised commerce, it seems humans still don’t understand basic economics. Demand, not cost of manufacture, determines the …

One of Microsoft's top Windows gurus and author of books and tools for securely coding Windows has embraced fiction with a debut tackling international cyber crime.
Platform and Services Division technical fellow Mark Russinovich has delivered a Die-Hard-4-style novel called Zero Day.
It tells the story of Osama-bin-Laiden- …

The Royal Mail's Parcelforce website is upsetting some Windows 7 fans, because the service doesn't support Microsoft's latest operating system.
One customer told us that the site refuses to let him proceed with a payment on Parcelforce.com because Windows 7 "failed to meet the necessary requirements for completing a transaction …

Miscreants have created an exploit capable of crashing Windows boxes and triggering the infamous Blue Screen of Death.
The attack relies on exploiting an unpatched vulnerability in Microsoft's implementation of SMB2 (Server Message Block), a network protocol involved in the sharing of files and printers on a network.
Windows …

Microsoft released six patches on Tuesday night - three critical - as part of its regular Patch Tuesday update cycle.
After the biggest ever patch cycle in October, November's patch train arrives with a far lighter load. The three critical fixes focus on bugs in various supported versions of Windows, though not Windows 7. Users …

ComputerWire: IT Industry Intelligence
Microsoft Corp is blaming users' failure to apply listed security measures for an "unexplained" surge in attempted hacks against Windows 2000-based servers.
Redmond, Washington-based Microsoft yesterday said it has determined a spate of hacks against Windows 2000-based servers do not …

The ship dates of Windows 2000 Beta 3 and the finished product have both slipped some more, to April and late 99 respectively. As late as last summer Microsoft was indicating that the product would go gold in Q1 of this year, but since then it's slid to second half, and now to the end of the year. The Register did get a …

Special report
Microsoft is working on two future releases of Windows 2000 that will maximize the integration of .NET Framework facilities. The two-stage release is designed to provide the earliest possible availability of major features.
"Whistler," the code name for the next release of Windows 2000, is cirrently at beta 1 stage, and is …

A new Windows-based denial of service attacks reportedly exploits a 10-year old OS flaw to crash vulnerable systems.
Independent security experts downplay the likely impact of the bug even though 2X Software, the virtual computing firm that discovered the bug, is talking up its supposed seriousness. Versions of Windows from the …

A security researcher at Google is recommending computer users make several configuration changes to protect themselves against a previously unknown vulnerability that allows untrusted users to take complete control of systems running most versions of Microsoft Windows.
The vulnerability resides in a feature known as the …

Many big-name anti-virus products failed to secure Windows 2000 in recent independent tests.
Seventeen out of 32 products tested - including packages from Trend Micro, Kaspersky, Norman and Sophos - failed to reach the standard required for VB100 certification. A total of 13 products failed to spot threats known to be …

Microsoft has agreed to allow Windows 7 customers to downgrade not just to Vista but also to XP.
The software firm confirmed it had planned downgrade rights for XP when Windows 7 shipped, which is expected later this year.
"Microsoft will be offering an n-2 downgrade option with Windows 7 to help customers plan their migrations …

We thought we could escape from writing the words "Windows 2000" again. But it's a topsy turvy world, and that's a fact - as these three IT security whitepapers, fresh from the Reg Library, show.
How to offer the strongest SSL encryption
This paper from VeriSign, urges web security pros to get their act together regarding …

Embarcadero Technologies hopes to exploit touch- and gesture-based input in Windows 7 with the latest release of its Delphi and C++ Builder RAD tools.
The company has released its Embarcadero RAD Studio 2010, which it said offers rapid development of interfaces for applications using a touch-enabled component framework. …

Microsoft won't fix vulnerabilities in the latest versions of Internet Explorer or Windows during its regularly scheduled patch release on Tuesday, meaning users will have to wait at least another month to get updates that correct the security risks.
The software maker on Thursday said January's Patch Tuesday will include a …

Windows 7's XP Mode does not mean you can completely avoid upgrading your Windows XP applications or entirely dodge Windows 7 certification, Microsoft has warned.
ISVs and end users will only get a Windows XP experience when running their Windows XP applications in the new operating system's Windows XP Mode. To experience the …

Sysadmin Blog
I admit: group policy is a pretty dry subject. If you are reading an article about group policy, you aren’t here for my sense of humour. This means that you are seeking a few technical tidbits. In Windows, it's not easy to do this.
Group policy changes with every iteration of Windows. Some group policy topics can be approached …

Thousands of websites have been hit by fast-moving exploit code that installs a cocktail of nasty malware on visitors' computers by targeting a previously unknown vulnerability in some versions of Internet Explorer.
The compromised websites link to a series of servers that exploit a zero-day vulnerability in an IE component that …

Microsoft will pull the plugs on MSDN downloads of a range of products, including Windows 98, Office 2000, SQL Server 7 and NT Workstation, next Monday. These contain the polluted Java which, according to the settlement with Sun, Microsoft has to stop supporting. So it's all Sun's fault, really.
Up to a point. The deal with Sun …

Microsoft has released the beta version of Small Business Server 2000 to its resellers worldwide.
The latest version of this BackOffice software is aimed at small to medium businesses with a maximum of 50 PCs.
It is based on the Windows 2000 OS - which upgrades the NT Server 4.0 operating system used in the existing Small …

Microsoft is advising people against rushing to download the Windows 7 Release Candidate, which became broadly available today.
The company has also reminded potential testers they won't be getting a gratis operating system, pointing out that while the Windows 7 RC 1 won't expire until next June, it will expire.
No-doubt stung …

Judge Janet Hall is of the opinion that NT 5.0 (aka Windows 2000) won't make it out of the door before the end of this year. And with a bit of luck, it'll slip into the next millennium. The Register believes this may be the first instance of a judge ruling on the viability of Microsoft's rollout schedules. Exquisitely, Judge …

Benefits claimants signing up for disability living allowance online are told they cannot use modern browsers, smartphones or even Macs.
The Department for Work and Pensions' microsite - available at www.dwp.gov.uk/eservice - states that folks should use it for claiming attendance allowance, disability living allowance and …